The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment on March 13 granted a permit, allowing Canisteo Wind Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Invenergy LLC, to construct a 290.7-megawatt wind generating facility in Steuben County. The project is expected to generate up to $60 million in local property tax revenues over 20…...
Georgia Power Company seeks to reduce fuel rates by about 16 percent, driven primarily by projected decreases in natural gas prices, according to a March 9 filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission. The change would lower monthly residential bills by 4 percent or $5 for a customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month, beginning June…...
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on March 4 approved Indianapolis Power & Light Company’s seven-year grid modernization plan, which proposes an investment of $1.2 billion to replace or upgrade the company’s aging transmission and distribution system assets. The plan will provide new technology, equipment, and systems including a self-healing grid that allows the company to…...
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems on March 10 announced a contract with Utah’s Intermountain Power Agency for the first advanced class gas turbines designed to facilitate the transition of a power plant in central Utah from coal, to natural gas and ultimately to renewable hydrogen fuel. The transition will begin in 2025, with a fuel mix…...
Indiana lawmakers approved legislation on March 10 that requires utilities to provide at least three years advance notice to the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission before retiring a legacy generation resource. A public utility may not retire otherwise transfer the ownership of a reliable capacity resource before May 2021 without receiving regulatory approval. The measure comes…...
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on March 6 issued its final environmental review for the Alaska LNG project, a $40-$45 billion, 800-mile pipeline and liquefied natural gas export facility expected to be the largest in the U.S. The project is being developed by Alaska Gasline Development Corp. in partnership with BP and ExxonMobil. The commission…...
Democratic Governor Kate Brown signed an executive order on March 10, setting a goal for the state to achieve 45 percent emissions reductions by 2035 and 80 percent by 2050, relative to 1990 levels. The order, which comes after the legislature failed to pass a cap-and-trade bill for the second year in a row, directs…...
The Michigan Public Service Commission on March 5 approved settlements expanding energy efficiency programs for low-income customers of Consumers Energy Co. and DTE Energy. The energy waste reduction, or EWR, program, which includes efforts to cut waste, improve efficiency, and lower energy use, have saved 1.5 million megawatt hours of electricity and 5 million cubic…...
The final version of Virginia’s Clean Economy Act cleared the state’s House of Delegates and Senate on March 7, and now awaits Democratic Governor Ralph Northam’s signature. The legislation codifies the 2050 clean energy goal that Governor Northam laid out in an executive order issued last September. The bill calls for more wind and solar…...
Democratic Governor Phil Murphy on Feb. 28 announced the state’s offshore wind procurement schedule, which calls for the next 1.2-gigawatt solicitation to be opened by September, with an award made by the second quarter of 2021. The plan calls for four more rounds in 2022, 2024, 2026 and 2028 to achieve the state’s 7.5-gigawatt offshore…
U.S. natural gas consumption rose by 3 percent last year, reaching a record of 85 billion cubic feet per day, according to a March 3 report from the Energy Information Administration. The agency attributed the increase to new gas-fired electric capacity and lower natural gas prices. In 2019, the electric power sector accounted for 36…...
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Feb. 27 announced the passage of a new energy code that establishes additional energy efficiency requirements that are specific to the city and its unique urban environment. The code is part of the city’s Green New Deal, a bold plan announced last April to combat climate change…....
